Bonnaroo 2012 (or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Musics)

After 2 years of Coachella, chunks of an edc and all of Electric Zoo 2011,
I thought I had a solid understanding of festival atmosphere. But I had
no idea what was coming to me with Bonnaroo. I felt wildly unprepared,
mildly sunburned and after feeling mildly disappointed by several of the
acts that I saw I began wondering about 2013 .. Should I buy tickets in
the presale or on craigslist just before the festival starts?

I'm a big fan of Kendrick and anything Black Hippy (Ab-Soul's gonna be awesome in
4 days), but like many young rappers, Kendrick has had difficulty translating his
talents to a festival setting. I was fairly disappointed overall, but hearing 'ADHD'
and 'The Recipe' made it all just about worth it

Confirming my suspicions that Thursday (not Sunday) is the day to miss if you have
to miss one as well as my suspicions that Phantogram plays music like the music I
listen to, but not as well. Exhausted, I felt bad about missing MiMosa and Big
Gigantic, but Bonnaroo is a marathon not a sprint ..

* The only thing I knew about Little Dragon was that their vocalist (Yukimi Nagano)
had a nice feature on DJ Shadow's latest LP, so I decided to give them a shot.
And, I was surprised to note that they were one of the best acts I had seen so far.
Very soothing, entrancing and quite nice.

** And were they ever calling. If it weren't for this real life married couple soothing
us all, waiting in the "line" for the Radiohead pit would have been painful. But after
Rodrigo leads us out and nearly floored me, the elegant beautiful vibes of Gabriela
(omg I want to marry her!) one up her husband. Seeing them perform should be on
all of your to do lists

*** "Everybody be Cool" yells someone in the middle of 'The Gloaming' . I relish on
their insistence on playing it in each of the 4 performances of theirs I've seen this
year. Distinctly recall the devilish grin it evokes in me while watching so many
faces disintegrate. Sure 'Paranoid Android' , 'Reckoner' , 'Everything in it's Right
Place' , 'Idioteque' (and in this case 'Karma Police' as well) steal the show, but
watching those who haven't yet seen the sadistic side of this band react was the
highlight of this show for me.

** Interestingly, and this is what I realized about Bonnaroo. The party goes on til
morning. There are no rules about when (or whether) to sleep. The headliners are
in a way just openers for the real party and Major Lazer was as fantastic and real
as can be. Definitely see diplo and switch if you get the chance

** As much as I was anticipating seeing Black Star, I simply couldn't leave Major
Lazer. Fortunately, I did manage to catch the last 30-40 minutes of Mos Def and
Talib Kweli and, as expected, they delivered

*** In which Flea reminds me why I've always held the Chili Peppers in the highest
of regard. Whereas I cherished Radiohead for giving me a since of individuality,
hearing 'If You Have To Ask' , along with classic after classic (I kinda wish 'Higher
Ground' wasn't the only pre-bssm song they play but I digress). It was kindof
strange to see Josh Klinghoffer, but he's talented in his own right, but Hillel Slovak
defined the Chili Peppers as much as John Frusciante so those who say it's like
seeing a fake version of the Chili Peppers need to wisen up.

* There's a movement of people. Hordes of people. Wild crazy people. Once you
cross a certain line, all rules are off, every man for themselves. Serotonin is
released, light shows abound and Sonny Moore is one of the biggest stars on the
planet. I mean, I was more upset I missed GZA perform liquid swords, but shit

the style didn't suit me at the time. his performance of 'school's out' was fantastic, but after red hot chili peppers and before questlove, the time slot didn't really suit him. i did give him a * just for that bit though

missing phish had everything to do with poor planning and nothing whatsoever to do with a desire to leave before phish played. despite using all (5) of my yearly vacation days on coachella / bonnaroo, i still couldn't catch sunday's sets.